head-on way than most countries. >> rose: including the united states? >> well, i think in the u.s. -- obviously you've got your own decisions to make about your fiscal problems and your issues and obviously your president and congress are engaging in that at the moment. but in the u.k. we have done that, we have got ahead of the curve and you can see in measures, for example, of how competitive the economies are, the you can is steadily becoming more and more competitive. >> rose: there's also this, the united states is engaged in this great debate that's going on in the white house with speaker of the house john boehner and the president of the united states, barack obama. what would be the optimal outcome of that debate as you look at it as a man who's dealing with the same kinds of problems? >> i'd say two things. one is we do need a resolution of this problem. i think the most immediate short-term problem facing the world economy-- i stress the word short term" is the u.s. fiscal cliff. i think if that is not resolved that is going to cause considerable problem for the world a

or less than that? >> well, u.s. intelligence officials were watching very closely the movement of syrian forces and in also trying to divine the intentions of president assad. clearly the rebels in syria have had a very good few -- past few weeks and making advances on the capital of damascus and president assad really feels like his back may be up against the wall. but is he desperate enough now to play this card which would almost certainly draw some kind of western response. >> rose: one more time, the red line is simply moving the chemical weapons? >> well, this is interesting, charlie, because the president said either moving them or using them. today secretary of state clinton mentioned only using them. jay carney, the white house spokesman also repeated that phrase, did not mention the president's earlier condition about moving them around. so it's a little bit unclear whether the administration perhaps has changed its red line. >> rose: do you think the united states is thinking about doing this unilaterally or is this an action taking place in conjunction with other forces from

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